HBO’s darkly excellent “The Penguin” spin-off series takes this ball and runs with it, fleshing out Gotham City’s criminal underbelly to the tune of critical acclaim and 24 Emmy nominations, including a Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nod to Farrell himself.
In hindsight, it may seem like “The Penguin” was always destined for success, considering how well Farrell portrays the character in “The Batman.” However, nothing is certain in the entertainment business. Like many other projects, “The Penguin” had to take a break from filming during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike – but more pressingly, Farrell was acutely aware of Warner Bros. perma-shelving the $90 million, Leslie Grace-starring “Batgirl” movie in 2022 due to then-new CEO David Zaslav’s changes in company strategy. In an interview with Variety, Farrell noted that this knowledge made him genuinely concerned that “The Penguin” might also never see the light of day:
“In a world where they can make a ‘Batgirl’ film and then just can it. I don’t understand it — the debits and credits and ledgers and, f******, all that stuff — but they can decide that it’s economically advantageous to just shelve a $90 million film that people have put so much effort into it. You better believe it. When we were in the middle of the strike, I remember saying to my sister, ‘I don’t know if we’re gonna go back to this. I don’t know if we’re gonna finish it.’ I did get nervous.”
